Bladel:About half--but only if you count Medicare & Social Security recipients, and veterans benefits.

Gotcha.

Well of course they count them. They also count these people in their "49% of Americans pay no income tax" boondoggle. It's true, America. Retirees living off Social Security do not, in fact, pay income tax on that income. They already paid taxes on it when they were working. It was called the Social Security tax.

The Remissness of our People in Paying Taxes is highly blameable; the Unwillingness to pay them is still more so.

I see, in some Resolutions of Town Meetings, a Remonstrance against giving Congress a Power to take, as they call it, the People's Money out of their Pockets, tho' only to pay the Interest and Principal of Debts duly contracted.

They seem to mistake the Point.

Money, justly due from the People, is their Creditors' Money, and no longer the Money of the People, who, if they withold it, should be compell'd to pay by some Law.

All Property, indeed, except the Savage's temporary Cabin, his Bow, his Matchcoat, and other little Acquisitions, absolutely necessary for his Subsistence, seems to me to be the Creature of public Convention. Hence the Public has the Right of Regulating Descents, and all other Conveyances of Property, and even of limiting the Quantity and the Uses of it.

All the Property that is necessary to a Man, for the Conservation of the Individual and the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition.

He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire and live among Savages. He can have no right to the benefits of Society, who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it.

-- Benjamin Franklin to Robert Morris. Christmas Day, 1783. Seeing as Gov. Christie was so kind to remind us how much they honor what our Founding Fathers were for.

49% but the number includes more than just people receiving anti-poverty assistance. It also includes Social Security and Medicare, the federal pension and health care programs for seniors -- programs that are funded by workers' payroll taxes and aren't typically associated with concerns about dependency. It also includes other benefits, such as worker's compensation or educational assistance for veterans.

But the number includes more than just people receiving anti-poverty assistance. It also includes Social Security and Medicare, the federal pension and health care programs for seniors -- programs that are funded by workers' payroll taxes and aren't typically associated with concerns about dependency. It also includes other benefits, such as worker's compensation or educational assistance for veterans.

FTA:Misleading. The "nearly half" Santorum cited includes most seniors who receive Medicare and Social Security benefits, while a large portion of the increase in poverty-assistance programs is a result of the lingering effects of the 2007-2009 recession.

They didn't say it was untrue. they said it was misleading which it was.

I thought it was closer, ya know, to 100%. I mean everyone relies on the government. EVERYONE. No governmental aid means no roads, no police, no fire fighters, no national defense, no education, and no LAWS. Dumb argument is dumb

Karac:If your corporation recieves income, it pays a tax. If it then pays you your salary, you pay tax. This is the hellish double taxation of job creators that conservatives swear will destroy our nation, despite the fact that it was two different people that were paying those taxes.

It's even worse than that - corporations pay income tax on profit, not revenue. They get to write of expenses. Individuals don't.

Bladel:Santorum (and subby?) seem to think that a check from the government of any kind is some sort of "assistance" (read: "welfare").

They both also seem to think that government is separate from the people it governs. But then, the people think that, as well, which is why most of them aren't really interested in fixing any problems within it.

And hey, whattaya know... when Mr. and Mrs. Santorum pass away, guess which one of their little tardlets is going to be completely dependent upon the state for her care and well-being? Assuming she doesn't die young, that is.